Think About it -- Reframe Your Thinking

"Students have no attention span." "All they do is play video games and listen to their iPods." "They spend too much time on the Internet." "They don't know how to socialize without Facebook." "They can't even hold a conversation; they sit next to each other and text." "They don't know how to research, all they do is Google their question." "Technology is fine, but kids still need to know how to..."

Any of these quotes sound familiar? Have you uttered some of them yourself?

The following video was produced by the MacArthur Foundation and features John Seely Brown, Nichole Pinkard, Diana Rhoten, Mimi Ito, Katie Salen, and Henry Jenkins--six of today's leading voices in technology in education reform. I have chosen it to get you to think about the conceptions you have regarding kids and their use of technology.

After watching the video, share your thoughts about its message (new insight, disagreements, etc). If you have your own thoughts, run with them. For those who would like a bit more guidance, here are some questions for you to consider: Are kids who have grown up digital motivated by the same things that drove us to learn? Can technology provide the elements of autonomy, mastery, and purpose that Pink identifies as keys to motivation? How has the digital age changed the learner? The learning? Our role as educators? 

Below is a Scribd widget that gives you the latest John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. In addition to sharing some valuable information, this widget can be seen as another example of how technology has made sharing information more efficient for everyone. (I guess that's why they call it the Information Age.)

Think About It - Motivation and Learning

In 2008,  I found myself reflecting on the concept of motivation in learning as I took on the challenge of creating a 1 minute video to submit to Google as part of my GoogleTeachers Academy Application.  

I started to think back about those times in my classroom where students were immersed in the flow of learning -  times when I had to kick them out to attend their next class; times when they came in after school and on weekends to finish projects;  times when they asked to take classroom tools home so they could keep working on their projects. What did those times have in common?

In his book, Drive, Dan Pink  identifies Autonomy,  Mastery, and Purpose as the keys to motivation.   Reflecting back on the project based learning environment I had designed in my classroom, I’d say that Pink’s research is spot on. 

According to Pink

• People want to be self directed
• People want to get better at stuff -  they seek the challenge of mastery (especially if it accompanies making a contribution)
• People want to be parts of ‘teams’  or “organizations”  with a purpose.

As educators our challenge is to create learning environments that give our students the opportunity to latch on to a sense of purpose, so they can seek the mastery of skills  necessary to contribute to that purpose and give them the autonomy to contribute to that purpose in a way that honors their skills and passion.   This is not an easy tasks.  It takes a masterful educator who is purposeful in his/her instructional design to achieve this.  And there will be false starts; there will be recalibration; there will be projects that plainly don’t come together.  There is no easy recipe.  But one reoccurring element that I found in the most motivating learning designs was “authentic audience.  Thus was born the inspiration for my one minute video on motivation.  

With so many examples of students being motivated by authentic audience, the tricky part was editing it down to one minute.  I managed to squeeze in examples of students

• blogging as part of Students 2.0
• creating podcast and newscast
• producing videos such as the 802 You Tube video that went viral and was featured in the New York Times
• composing music that was being mentored by professional composers as part of the Vermont Midi Project online community

But there are so many more.  And today’s digital age culture provides us with so many tools and opportunities for authentic audience to be part of the learning opportunities we provide to our students.

Yet, despite the research and the increased availability of tools and opportunities that the digital age culture provides us to learn with an authentic audience, schools and organizations continue to design motivational schemes based on carrots and sticks.

People don’t want to be treated like a horse.  Get rid of carrots and sticks and bring on autonomy, mastery, and purpose as you design a learning environment that yields high performance in your students. 

To learn more about Pink’s theories of motivation check out Vermont principal, Larry Fliegelman’s  blog post  ‘19 Top Ideas for Education in ‘Drive’    or RSA short video animation summarizing key concepts from Drive.

Think about experiences where you as a learner  or your students' motivation lead to amazing learning.  Share what this experience looked like.  What elements contributed to the motivation? When you think about these successful experiences, do you see  Maslow, Herzberg, Vroom,  Alfie Kohn, or Dan Pink’s theories at play?